Obama WH knew drilling moratorium would cost 23,000 jobs

posted at 12:15 pm on August 23, 2010 by Ed Morrissey

Remember in December when the White House said it would make a “hard pivot” from health care to jobs? That “hard pivot” didn’t materialize until months later, and in a completely different form than one might have assumed. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration’s moratorium on drilling in the Gulf cost Americans 23,000 jobs — and that Barack Obama knew it when he ordered it:

Senior Obama administration officials concluded the federal moratorium on deepwater oil drilling would cost roughly 23,000 jobs, but went ahead with the ban because they didn’t trust the industry’s safety equipment and the government’s own inspection process, according to previously undisclosed documents.

Critics of the moratorium, including Gulf Coast political figures and oil-industry leaders, have said it is crippling the region’s economy, and some have called on the administration to make public its economic analysis. A federal judge who in June threw out an earlier six-month moratorium faulted the administration for playing down the economic effects. …

They show the new top regulator or offshore oil exploration, Michael Bromwich, told Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that a six-month deepwater-drilling halt would result in “lost direct employment” affecting approximately 9,450 workers and “lost jobs from indirect and induced effects” affecting about 13,797 more. The July 10 memo cited an analysis by Mr. Bromwich’s agency that assumed direct employment on affected rigs would “resume normally once the rigs resume operations.”

This may have been a necessary tradeoff if the moratorium was really the needed solution. However, even the President’s own task force on the Gulf crisis didn’t believe it to be necessary. They publicly rebuked the White House for misleading the public by linking the ban to their analysis of the disaster, which never contemplated a blanket moratorium.

In the end, the moratorium replaced action by the administration to address the critical failings in its own regulatory regime:

In another document, William Hauser, chief of the regulations and standards branch of what was formerly called the Minerals Management Service, outlined the risks of various drilling activities in an email to colleagues and then wrote: “The more I write this stuff the more I believe we can/should/could regulate/stop activities through a prudent management process versus a moratoria scheme.”

He added, “I guess the moratoria approach is necessary because the MMS cannot be trusted to regulate.” Mr. Hauser couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.

Rather than fix their own problems (which, to be fair, predated this administration as well as continued under Obama and Salazar), Obama and his team instead imposed the ban, killing thousands of jobs and setting back the economy of the Gulf by years — literally. The capital equipment needed to produce oil in the Gulf has begun to disperse to foreign waters, thanks to the government’s refusal to allow continued drilling by companies that had nothing to do with Deepwater Horizon. Any new drilling will take years to restart if those rigs float away to other resources, and the capital investment that created today’s rigs may not be as easy to acquire in the wake of the arbitrary nature of Obama’s actions.

That’s one of the reasons why we’re already having trouble producing jobs. This is just a microcosm of Obamanomics.

Blowback

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but went ahead with the ban because they didn’t trust the industry’s safety equipment and the government’s own inspection process

You know, if I didn’t trust the industry’s safety equipment or my own inspection process I’d 1) fire the inspectors and hire competent ones to go over the safety equipment. But then again, what do I know, I don’t have any executive experience.

So Obama knew it would cost thousands of jobs, and he went ahead and falsified the statements of his task force in order to push for the moratorium that was unnecessary anyway. Huh. Can we say he’s anti-American yet? Or are we going to pretend he’s just dumb for a bit longer?

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration’s moratorium on drilling in the Gulf cost Americans 23,000 jobs — and that Barack Obama knew it

Looks like the hard pivot was made with a jackboot on the necks of 23K Americans that need to work and feed families. This is based on an anti-oil ideology and policy platform of: “Kill the Oil Jobs and let them find something else–Green Jobs, perhaps!?”

Any new drilling will take years to restart if those rigs float away to other resources, and the capital investment that created today’s rigs may not be as easy to acquire in the wake of the arbitrary nature of Obama’s actions.

The 23,000 jobs is probably a very conservative estimate. In the long term, that number should rise considerably. It looks like the current administration is trying to punish the states that were economically doing better than the national average as well as those that did not blindly support him.

Don’t forget the 100,000 jobs killed when the admin unnecessarily closed all those car dealerships so that non-union people would have to “share the sacrifice”.

If you live in a red state, or work in the private sector in a non-union job, you are dirt to this president. The only jobs this president cares about are those of his primary donors, the big unions. It’s all about political pay-off.

The 23,000 jobs is probably a very conservative estimate. In the long term, that number should rise considerably. It looks like the current administration is trying to punish the states that were economically doing better than the national average as well as those that did not blindly support him.

DAT60A3 on August 23, 2010 at 12:29 PM

Exactly. And estimates of the eventual job loss from this action range up to 100,000 or 150,000, depending on source. If it continues, people back in the HQs in Houston will start to be laid off.

The July 10 memo cited an analysis by Mr. Bromwich’s agency that assumed direct employment on affected rigs would “resume normally once the rigs resume operations.”

You throw 23,000 people off oil rigs worth tens of millions of dollars for six months, and “assume” that everything will start up hunky-dorey six months from now? There are other fish in the sea, and there is oil under other seas. Those rigs won’t be there six months from now.

So Obama knew it would cost thousands of jobs, and he went ahead and falsified the statements of his task force in order to push for the moratorium that was unnecessary anyway. Huh. Can we say he’s anti-American this is his umpteenth thousand impeachable offense and start the proceedings?

Or, are we going to continue to pretend he’s just dumb for a bit longer be afraid to put the pedal to the metal on the “I” word?

Today, teenage unemployment is at an all-time high, hitting 26.1 percent in July. According to economists at Northeastern University, 4 million fewer teens are working today than would have if employment was at 2000 levels. Meanwhile, family financial stress hits teens, too. It’s a combination that could have long-term effects on both their earning power and their mental health.

I’m getting tired of being among the few conspiracy theorists here. So please someone explain to me why this doesn’t point to a Cloward-Piven strategy?

And why isn’t this publicly broadcasted?

shick on August 23, 2010 at 12:46 PM

Because conspiracy theories aren’t moderate, and moderation is valued around these parts.

For my part, I believe the administration is indeed hell-bent on the systematic destruction of the USA. Anyone who takes their social justice theory to its logical conclusion should be able to realize this.

Hell, Rush mentions it frequently. You needn’t be on the cutting edge of societal evolution to know that these people are doing these seemingly incompetent things on purpose.

Rather than fix their own problems (which, to be fair, predated this administration as well as continued under Obama and Salazar)

Ed, what Bush did regarding MMS doesn’t matter one little bit. Mr. Zero had close to a year to fix it and did nothing. Under Salazar were they not caught watching porn? The latest I read they sent a rookie out to inspect Deepwater Horizon just before the blowout.

Zero sees and reacts to everything from a personal, egocentric, political perspective.

That is, Zero asks, “What is the correct political response, for me?”

Then he pulls the trigger regardless of the consquences. He does not care a whit about anyone or anything except himself.

Wouldn’t Interior Secretary Ken Salazar ultimately be responsible for ensuring the safety of the equipment by making sure there were inspections and holding oil companies accountable? Didn’t he fail to do this and eleven people lost their lives as a result? Why doesn’t he join the list of unemployed?

LOL! The hack doing what she does best…she’s a one trick pony…apologia, after apologia, after apologia. Wonder if she is still looking over her shoulder all intimidated and stuff to see if Megyn Kelly is on her tailKP? Gives hope to those who wanna be a world-class intellect but all they are is Canada.

I bet closing down half of GM and Chrysler’s auto dealerships helped create or save alot of jobs too. So did telling Americans not to go to Las Vegas; taking away the bonuses of Wall Street executives; taking the Student Loan business away from the Banking industry; taking over the Health care industry; neccesarily skyrocketing electricity costs.
This guy is a regular job making machine!

I worry that the DEMS are not worrying, and statements from Biden who is not exactly the brightest bulb, and the undercurrent of defiance from this admin. like they know something we don’t. Scares me.

concernedsenior on August 23, 2010 at 1:34 PM

Don’t mistake incompetence and ignorance for confidence. They are unnaturally oblivious to the state of affairs in the country, which can come across as “thinking smart things about other, more important things”. In elementary school, it’s called day-dreaming.

I worry that the DEMS are not worrying, and statements from Biden who is not exactly the brightest bulb, and the undercurrent of defiance from this admin. like they know something we don’t. Scares me.

concernedsenior on August 23, 2010 at 1:34 PM

I question whether that anything short of a worldwide zombie attack could do so for long, if only because people are suspicious of the current administration trying so many things of questionable legality.

Attempting to stop elections they were clearly going to lose would cause far more problems for them than letting them go forward.

Try this on for size, the basic petrochemical process unit is the olefins cracker. It takes in various hydrocarbons, depending on design, from oil to natural gas, as feedstock. It also consumes a lot of natural gas for its burners to heat the feedstock in huge furnaces. It produces ethylene, propylene and a few other odds and ends. These two products are used as base materials for all sorts of things, just about everything in fact.

So, now where are these process units located? 90% are in Texas and Louisiana mostly near the coast. The two largest are in Baton Rouge and just north of New Orleans in Taft, LA.

The question is, “Why are these plants concentrated near the coast?” The answer is offshore natural gas production. It has been this way since the 1950′s.

Here is the problem which Zero and his administration are either one of two things. Dumber than a box of rocks or attempting to undermine the ENTIRE U.S. economy by cutting off the source of the petrochemical industry, and thus pharmaceuticals, paints, dyes, plastics, computer chips, flat screens, detergent, and just about anything synthetic made in the U.S. No more isopropyl alcohol either, or white vinegar.

Bakken, Barnett, Haynesville and Alaska ARE NOT going to able to replace what comes out of the Gulf of Mexico in the way of natural gas.

This is 100,000′s of thousands of jobs lost & trillions of dollars, NOT 23,000.

Hey,no problem we’ll give those folks jobs painting signs to put at sites where there is road work going on, telling us how well the stimulus plan is working.Especially at those places where the work was going to be done anyway.
Signs,signs,everywhere there’s signs.

Somebody should check Sen. Landrieu’s telephone system – it might be out of order again.

Adjoran on August 23, 2010 at 1:22 PM

I’m tempted to have someone prank-call an office next to hers to walk over and tell her that the phones are down and that, if they aren’t up soon, James O’Keefe plans on coming by for a visit.

teke184 on August 23, 2010 at 1:28 PM

O’Keefe plain old screwed up. ALL of her main lines at ALL of her offices were down from at least Thanksgiving until only after the start of the New Year. I know, I called all 5 offices daily during that period. After she voted YEA the lines magically began working again. And don’t EVER try voicing displeasure her staff only sends federal investigators out to visit you!

I go with box two, undermining the entire economy, he is systematically destroying, the gulf states, the western states, rendering them irrelevant, seizing nearly all their land so they have no resources, water,minerals,oil. what’s left?

You know, if I didn’t trust the industry’s safety equipment or my own inspection process I’d 1) fire the inspectors and hire competent ones to go over the safety equipment. But then again, what do I know, I don’t have any executive experience.

rbj on August 23, 2010 at 12:23 PM

Gee an actual use of government money that would accomplish something. Can’t have that. The government is so busy sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong they can’t manage to do what they are supposed to do, e.g. USDA inspectors of food supply, immigration enforcement officials, oil rig safety inspectors. So frustrating.